Type-wheel printer



Aug. 17, 1937. G, s, HlLTZ 2,690,203

TYPE WHEEL PRINTER File@ April 11, 1935 2 Shets-Sheet l limi,"

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ATTORNEY Aug. 17, 1937. G. s. HIL-rz TYPE WHEEL PRINTER Filed April 1l, 1935 2 Sheets-Sheet' 2 www me. a Bf "1.4m

INVENTOR G. S. HILTZ ATT Patented Aug. 17, 1937 uNiTs srArEs PATENT FIQE TYPE-WHEEL PRINTER Application April 11, 1935, Serial No. 15,869

5 Claims.

This invention relates, in general, to printing telegraph machines, and has particular reference to improvements in the driving mechanism of the type-Wheel thereof.

5 One of the objectsA of this invention is to increase the speed of operation. Another object is to eliminate, or appreciably decrease, the flywheel action of the type wheel and its shaft. Still another object is to provide means for decreasing the rebounding action of the type-wheel and its shaft at the escapement mechanism.

A still further and more specic object is to effect a continuity of rotation of the escapement- Wheel shaft and the type-wheel by decreasing the sudden jar or shock transmitted to the escapement-wheel shaft each time the escapementwheel strikes the escapement armature.

In printing telegraph machines of the type to which this invention relates, it has heretofore been customary to have the type-wheel and escapement-wheel rigidly secured to a common shaft, the rotation of this shaft being controlled by the escapement magnet and its armature. Ihe escapement-wheel is permitted to rotate one 254 stepl for each movement of the armature.

While the type-wheelis rotating so as to bring the proper character into printing position, the rotary movement of the escapement-wheel shaft is practically continuous. When, however, a

prolonged pulse is sent through the escapement magnet, the escapement-wheel strikes against the escapement anchor, or armature, and the escapement-Wheel and its shaft comes to rest With a sudden jerk.

It will beobvious that in those printing selections where the type-Wheel must make a substantial portion of a revolution to arrive at the selected character, inertia will be stored up in the rotating type-wheel. This ily-wheel effect of the type-wheel is transmitted through its shaft, and causes a rebounding action at the escapement mechanism. Y

This fly-Wheel action imposes a limitation on the speed of the printer, and when operated at or near the maximum speed sometimes causes the type-wheel not to properly align the character to be printed. Another object of the invention is, therefore, to overcome this difficulty.

Other objects are effected by this invention, as

will be apparent from the following description and claims taken in connection with the accompanying drawings forming apart of this application, in which:

Fig. 1 is an elevational View of a Burry printer `With all parts, except ,the type-wheel shaft and `ment-wheel shaft and indexing-wheel, taken along the line 4 4 of Fig. l.

Referring first Vto Fig. l, there is shown the framework of a standard page printer, such as that shown in the patent to Burry7 No. 680,693, dated August 20,v 1901. This machine is Well kknown in the art and hence many of the parts,

not essential to a clear description of this invention, have not been included, so that the improvements herein may be more easily shown.

The present invention employs twol shafts, 5f and 6, as a driving mechanism for the type-wheel. Type-wheel shaft 5 is triangular in cross-section, and carries a longitudinally movable sleeve l, to Which is rigidly secured the type-Wheel 8. This shaft has its ends suitably journaled at l and I I in the framework of the printer. Mounted upon the left end of shaft 5 is a star-Wheel I2 provided With an extended hub portion i3 on one side thereof, from the perpendicular face of which project two horizontal pins Iii and l5. The escapement-Wheel shaft 6, carrying a gear I6 and the escapement-wheel mechanism il, has its left end suitably journaled in the framework at I8, and its right end supported by, and loosely coupled to, the left end of shaft 5, as is more clearly: illustrated in Fig.l 2. The rotational movement of shaft 6 is transmitted to shaft 5 by means of two pins I9 and 20 diametrically opposite each other and projecting radially from a collar ZI secured tothe shaft 6 by means of a set screw. The pins i9 and 2t engage the horizontal pins I4 and I5 respectively, so as to drive rthe type-wheel shaft.

Fig. 2 shows a sectional elevation view of the shafts 5 and 6, and their associated mechanism. It will be observed that shaft 6 is divided into stepped portions 22 and 23, and that the right end 2t is turned down so as to t into the end of shaft 5, the latter being drilled out to provide a bearing support for shaft 6.

Securely mounted on portion 23 of the shaft 6 are two hanged collars 25 and 26, intermediate which is located the escapement-wheel 2, and

a washer 28. The escapement-wheel is of Ya type in common use, and needs no description. However, this invention provides for an escapementwheel loosely carried by the shaft, and limited in its free rotation by a pin 29, projecting hori- Zontally from the face of the wheel 21 through 5 a notched portion 30 of the washer 28, and a similarly notched portion 3| of the flanged collar 26. A locking collar 32, held by a set screw 33, shown in Fig.y 1, is screwed on a threaded portion 34 of the shaft 6 and serves to prevent l0 side movement of the escapement mechanism.

In Figs. 2, 3 and 4 the parts have been considerably enlarged for the sake of clarity.L It will be noticed from Fig. 3 that the notched portion 3| of the collar 26 is. substantially wider than the diameter of the pin 29 projecting therethrough. The excess: space indicates the amount' of free rotational movement the escapement-- wheel may have. The pin 29 is normally held against the right side of the notch 3| by the'v ac tion of a curved spring member 35. This spring member is secured at one end, by means of a set screw 36, to the flanged portion of the collar 26, its free end yieldingly engaging the pin 29.

'I'he escapement-Wheel shaft rotates in the direction indicated, and is stopped each time one of its teeth engages the escapement magnet armature 3'I. As hereinbefore mentioned, this rotation is substantially continuous until the escape-ment-whee-l assumes its preselected position, whereupon it comes to a sudden stop. It is obvious that at high speeds there is a substantial fly-Wheel effect due to the momentum of the rotating parts.

When the escapement-wheel comes to a sudden stop, the shaft and parts secured thereto, may continue to# rotate, limited of course by the i slot 3 I, until the energy of rotation or momentum 'built' up in the revolving parts is dissipated through the spring member 35. In other words, 40 the spring acts as a snubber to cushion the effe'ct of the shocks andjars'incident to the intermittent" operation of the escapement mechanism.` u v Y In Fig. 4 is shown an enlarged View of the couplingV arrangement between the shafts` 5 and 6. As stated, this comprisesfa collar 2| having a pair of Ypins I9 and 2l) projecting radially therefrom, and engaging the pins I4 and I5, projecting from the face of the star-wheel I2. It will be noticed that the pins I4 and I5 are not diametrically opposite each other, but are positioned sov that they are slightly off the'diameter a predetermined distance. The pins I4 and I5 are disposed on the same side of the pins I9 and 20 and are so positioned that there caribe only slight play or movement in either direction.

The centering and indexing mechanism is also shown.A 'I'his comprises a pointed finger 39 movable into engagement with the teeth on theV star-wheel I2, and cooperating with the same in selecting a predetermined one of two adjacent Ycharacters on the type-Wheel. 'I'his indexing mechanism is well known in the art and requires' no further' description.

With the loose coupling arrangement of pins I9, 2D and I4, I5 it is possible for the shaft 6 to revolvea slight amount before its movement vis transferred to shaft 5, and also for shaft 5 to continue rotating a slight amount each time the escapement-wheel shaft 6 is brought to a stop. In Vother words, there may be a slight lag in startingzand a slight overthrow in stopping.

With the loose coupling, as shown, there is not a positive drive between the two shaftsl but instead, shaft 6 is urged around by a series of blows or thrusts delivered through the pins I9 and 20.

The operation of the type-wheel positioning mechanism is as follows:

As a series of stepping impulses are received to select a character for printing, the armature 31 of the escapement magnet 38 vibrates from one side -to the other, permitting the escapement wheel 21 to rotate step-by-step under the driving force of a spring motor (not shown) geared to the pinion I6. The movement of the wheel 21 is intermittent, that is, it isl arrested momentarily between each impulse by the arma.- ture of the escapement magnet. The shaft 6, however, is permitted to rotate to some extent during the momentary rest intervals. of the es'- `capementwheel due to the flexure by spring 35. Upon release of the escapement-wheel by armature 31, on the reception of a. succeeding impulse of the character group, the spring 35, rby energy stored the-rein, quickly advancesl the escapement-wheel one step. The movement of the shaft 6 is substantially continuous, with a. certain amount of deceleration and acceleration as the escapement-wheel is momentarily stopped and released. rThe shaft 6 drives the typewheel shaft 5 through the pins 20 and I5, the former applying slight blows to the latter as the driving pin 20 accelerates up to the driven pin I5. On deceleration of the shaft 6, the typewheel may rotate freely under the momentum imparted to it by the aforesaid blow, so that the pin I5 advances` relatively to the pin 20, until restricted by engagement of the pin I4 with the pin I9. On the next escapement of the wheel `21, the pin 2U again accelerates to apply another driving blow to the shaft 5 through pins 20 and I5. The movement of the type-wheel is, therefore, substantially uniform as it moves from onev printing position to the next.

Upon prolonged stopping of the escapement-I` wheel at the end of a character signal, the shaft 6 continues `to rotate until the rear wall of the 'slot 3| engages the pin `29, whereupon the shaft 6 comes to rest. At about the same time pin I4 is advanced into engagement with the pin |9,`

thereby stopping the type-Wheel shaft. Due to the momentum of the type-wheel shaft and )the parts carried thereby, there is a certain amount ofi-rebound of the type-wheel shaft, which throws the shaft and the wheel I2 carried thereby backward, or in a clockwise direction, as viewed in Fig. 4. Since the driven pin I5 is spaced from the driving pinZIl at this time the rebound has no effect on the escapement-wheel shaft, at least until pin 5 is carried backward sufliciently to engage the pin 20, at which time the force of the rebound will have been substantially, if not entirely, expended. However, even if a blow sufficient to rotate the shaft 6 in a backward direction lshould be given to the pin 20 by the rebound of the type-wheel shaft, this blowlwill not be transmitted to the escapement-wheel but will be absorbed by the spring 35 as the rear wall of the slot 3| is moved away from the pin 29 carried by one form, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that it is not so limited, but is susceptible to various changes and modifications without departing from the spirit thereof, and it is desired, therefore, that only such limitations shall be placed thereon as are imposed by the prior art or are specifically set forth in the appended claims.

What I claim is:

l. In a printing telegraph machine, the combination of a type-Wheel, a shaft carrying the same, a second shaft loosely coacting with said rst mentioned shaft for effectuating the rotation of said type-wheel, an escapement-wheel loosely carried by said second shaft, yieldable means for restraining the rotary movement of said escapement-wheel relatively to said shaft, said means comprising a resilient member having one end secured to said shaft, and the other end engaging the escapement-Wheel.

2. In a printing telegraph machine, the combination of a type-wheel shaft, an escapementwheel shaft, a yieldably mounted escapementwheel on said last mentioned shaft, and means for loosely coupling said shafts together, whereby one shaft may have a slight rotation in either direction relatively to the other.

3. In a printing telegraph machine, a type- Wheel shaft carrying a type-wheel, a member fix-edly mounted at one end of said type-wheel shaft, a second shaft in substantial alinement with said first shaft, an escapement-wheel yieldably mounted on said second shaft, coupling means for joining said shafts end-to-end, comprising a plurality of elements projecting radially from said second shaft and transversely intersecting the locus of said first mentioned elements so as to loosely engage the same, whereby said first shaft is rendered responsive to the rotation of said second shaft. v

4. In a printing telegraph machine, a type- Wheel shaft, a second shaft in substantial alinement with said first shaft, an escapement-wheel yieldably mounted on said second shaft, coupling means'for joining said shafts end-to-end, comprising a plurality of angularly spaced members carried by said type-wheel shaft, a plurality of differently spaced members projecting from said second shaft, and transversely intersecting the locus of said first mentioned members so as to loosely engage the same, whereby said first shaft is rendered responsive to the rotation of said second shaft.

5. In a printing telegraph machine, a typewheel shaft, a type-wheel, a star-wheel Xedly mounted at one end of said type-wheel shaft, a second shaft in substantial alinement with said rst shaft, an escapement-wheel yieldably mounted on said second shaft, coupling means for joining said shafts end-to-end, comprising a pair of members projecting horizontally from the outer face of said star-wheel on non-diametric lines, a second pair of members projecting from said second shaft on a diametric line and transversely intersecting the locus of said first mentioned members so as to loosely engage the same, whereby said rst shaft may have a slight rotary movement in either direction relatively to said second shaft, and whereby said rst shaft is rendered operable through said second shaft.

GEORGE S. HILTZ. 

